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I will be traveling to Italy September 5-17 with 2 other girlfriends. The plan is to fly to Rome, take a train to Salerno and "do" the Amalfi Coast. From Positano, I need to find a way to get us to Sardina for the latter part of our trip. Below is the tentative itinerary for the Amalfi Coast I put together but as I write it again, I realize this is just OUT OF CONTROL and rather ridiculous expectations. Just too much, right?? In your expert opinions,which town(s) would you suggest we omit??

9/7: 2pm train to Salerno. Stay the night.

9/8: Spend the day in Salerno -- or is it worth spending a day in Salerno??

9/9: Hire a driver for the day (approximately 12 hours) and start early. All times are ballpark figures:

* Ending the evening around 7:00pm or so in Positano. Staying the night.

9/10: Spend day in Positano, staying the night.

On google maps, the drive from Salerno to Positano is roughly an hour and 44 minutes. That in mind, I'm assuming I'm trying to stick too much into a day of small town sightseeing, right? The obvious tells me to just stick to Ravello, Amalfi and Positano but would we be missing better gems like Maiori or Praiano??? I'm going off the top 6 places to visit on the Amalfi Coast on TA...

2nd question - does anyone have any good recommendations on driving companies? And approximately how much they charge per hour or for the day? My mother hired a driver in 2010 and it was approximately 200 euros for 8 hours plus gratuity. But that was roundtrip from Sorrento to ?? (not sure where they turned around). This will just be a one way trip from Salerno to Positano. AND an additional 4 hours. I don't want to feel rushed so if we happen to spend 3 hours in Amalfi, then we can always just skip Praiano and go straight to Positano. We will want to have the flexibility to do that.

3rd question - what is the best way to get from Positano to Sardinia? We would prefer to fly/ferry into the Olbia area. Any travel company websites you can direct me to?

I appreciate any feedback. And I realize the itinerary is pretty insane...but will there be someone who thinks that crazy itinerary is plausible??

With such limited time on the AC, I would skip spending time in Salerno. If you could take a slightly earlier train, you can catch the ferry from Salerno to Positano on the 7th. Then that would leave you 3 days to see the other town on the AC and enjoy some time in Positano. On the 8th, spend the day exploring Positano. On the 9th, catch a ferry to Amalfi and spend the day exploring Amalfi and Ravello. Then you can decide whether or not you want to hire a driver to explore the smaller towns, or just hang on out in Positano (or take the ferry to Capri for the day).

Engred - Thank you for your suggestions! I have already revised the tentative itinerary and omitted Maiori and Praiano. I think it would just be too much running around. Ferries it is! I wanted to "drive the coast" like we can do in California but after speaking w/ my mom and reading other TA contributors messages about not being able to stop very often, I guess that's not the most ideal and economical way to "do" the Amalfi Coast. C'est la vie. LOL.

Thomas144 - Looks like you're trying to hoard Salerno all to yourself!! Haha! The reasons for not flying to Naples are 2-fold. One, the flight from Charlotte, NC to Rome was Direct, Non-Stop, and the least expensive. Two, I want to take the train to Salerno as opposed to have to take a regional train to Naples and then hire a driver to take me to the coast. Seems the most economical and time-saving way to go, no??? If you can offer another suggestion that saves time and money, by all means, I AM ALL EARS!! :) As for the smaller towns, I have omitted those in the interest in saving time and energy.

Hmmm, so far no luck on getting to Sardinia... that is going to be my biggest challenge, I see.... :(

However, it would be a lot easier and faster to fly, the cheapest way would probably be Ryanair from Rome-Ciampino to Cagliari, but Meridiana and (in summer at least) Alitalia also fly from Fiumicino to Olbia, See …wikipedia.org/wiki/Olbia_Costa_Smeralda_Air…

Personally I would prefer to change planes in some place like London and fly into Naples rather than fly to Rome and then get to the train station, unless it's really a lot more expensive.

In any case it's not clear to me why getting to Sorrento from Salerno would be easier than from Naples. I assume you could get from Salerno to Sorrento by boat (I've never taken it that far). Any particular reason you are going to Sorrento?

I usually drive to these places, so I'm not really familiar with public transportation along the Amalfi coast aside from the ferry. I have driven the coast from Sorrento to Salerno once in my life, but wouldn't want to do it again. If you think the Amalfi coast is anything like the California coast, you are in for a big surprise! :-)

To answer Part 2 of your question - I used www.worldtours.it for day trips. I used them for three days to different locations - one of which was the Amalfi Coast (Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi and return to Naples). Email them for a quote as I got a 3-day rate including transfers and it was off-season, however they are cheap compared with the other companies I checked out. They have some nice English speaking drivers who let you sit in front - no car sickness!

Thanks all! Some great advice and the links are welcome! Very much appreciated!

One question for Sardinia ... is renting a car really the best way to go? I'm just concerned based on what I've heard how driving can be on the mainland, wasn't sure if it was different on the island?

We will be staying in the Olbia area, possibly staying in Capo Coda Cavallo, #8 ranked on TA for best beach location in Italy. And then we'll be hitting up Baunei for #3 and #10 ranked best beaches in Italy. Are there buses that run these routes that may be an option? Is getting between provinces by bus even recommended?

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